NIH is first to move on ACES

The General Services Administration today announced that the National Institutes of Health has started development work on a task order under a governmentwide contract covering public-key infrastructure and security services.

According to GSA, NIH's Office of Extramural Research is working with the GSA on developing the first task order by a federal agency under the Access Certificates for Electronic Services contract.

ACES will provide a governmentwide contract for agencies to procure PKI technology and services, including digital certificates that will encrypt and authenticate communications sent across the Internet.

GSA today also tapped AT& T for the third award under the ACES contract. Digital Signature Trust Co. and Operational Research Consultants Inc. received the first two awards last month.

The NIH procurement is a preliminary task order that likely will lead to more widespread use at the agency, said Judy Spencer, director of the GSA Center for Governmentwide Security.

Spencer also said that the Education Department has indicated that it intends to use the contract for several applications, and other agencies are conducting evaluations of the contract.